Brittany

Bretagne (region), also Brittany, historical region of France, formerly a province and duchy, commensurate with the present-day departments of Finistère, Côtes-du-Nord, Morbihan, Ille-et-Vilaine, and Loire-Atlantique. The region is generally identical with the peninsula extending for about 240 km (about 150 mi) into the Atlantic Ocean between the English Channel on the north and the Bay of Biscay on the south. Rennes, the former provincial capital, is the chief city. In ancient times the region formed …

…of Geoffrey Plantagenet, son of Henry II, king of England, in 1171. It reverted to a line of French dukes at Rennes early in the 13th century. In 1491, when Anne of Bretagne, who had inherited the duchy, married Charles VIII, king of France, Bretagne was temporarily united with France. The union became permanent by treaty in 1532, during the reign of the French king Francis I, who had married Claude, daughter of Anne of Bretagne ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**